My Other Car is a Spaceship (27 page)

Hal’s eyes went wide as he heard the hatch seal itself behind him.

“There is no need to return you to
Smuggler’s Cove
for disposition,” Captain Tro’s voice came through the intercom. “I have decided to handle matters myself. You could have killed my people in the missile room, but you attempted to spare them. For that I am grateful. True, you did try to blow up the ship, but only as a last resort. And you did damage my ship, but not irreparably. You acted with honor.

“For that, I have decided to
deny Penrod the pleasure of killing you.”

The external hatch began to cycle.

What? Instead of shooting me first to spare me the torture of explosive decompression, the bastard’s going to space me alive?
That’s
the reward I get for sparing his people?

Damn you to
the deepest caverns of hell, Tro! I’ll be waiting there for you!

The
outer hatch finished cycling and began to open.

Hal
steeled himself against the expected out-rush of air, realizing how pointless it was.
Even if I don’t get sucked out, I’m still dead.

The hatch opened and
…a head poked through.

Huh? What the hell?

The Foren waved an orange tentacle at Hal. “Well, hurry up. I do not have all day. We must be off.”

“What? Who—?”

“Come along, come along. I have places to go and things to do. I cannot stand here waiting for you.”

“I
—” Hal didn’t know what to say, so he shrugged and approached the Foren in the hatch. He looked back at the inner hatch, which was still sealed behind him.
What the hell is going on here?

The Foren stepped aside to let Hal pass,
and then he secured the hatch. For a moment Hal froze. It appeared he was standing in vacuum, which was impossible—not and still be breathing.

After a moment, his eyes adjusted to the dim
lighting and he realized that he was in a nearly transparent access tube connecting the Foren’s ship to
Queen Anne’s Revenge
. Above him hung a blue-brown planet dotted with lights in the portion shadowed by night. Below and to his right he saw nothing but stars. To his left was a space station in the distance, surrounded by ships seemingly the size of fireflies and buzzing around the station.

“Come, come,” the Foren called over his shoulder as he
moved toward the open hatch at the other end. “No dallying.”

Hal followed
, marveling as always how smoothly Foren flowed along on eight tentacles.

Once inside, the Foren sealed the hatch.
He turned to his right and called back, “Follow me.”

Hal did as he was bid, still wondering what was going on.

They moved quickly down a passageway. The Foren turned left and entered through a doorway that slid open in front of him. Hal followed and found himself standing on the bridge of the ship.

It had nowhere near the grandeur of
Adventurer’s
bridge. The bridge of
this
ship was much smaller and dingier. It gave the impression of great age and long service. The front viewport was smaller than
Adventurer’s,
roughly two meters by three, and the central screen smaller yet.

Only
three other people populated the bridge, two Foren and a Thorian. “Welcome, human,” the latter called from the pilot’s couch. The others nodded in greeting.

I’m getting the strongest feeling of déjà vu here.
Hal flashed back to his first minutes aboard
Adventurer
, years earlier. “Hello,” he responded.

He turned to the
captain. “Welcome
where?
How about telling me who you all are and why I’m here.”

“Of course. You are aboard
Far Traveler.
We are a freighter hauling cargo on a regular run between Foren space and Blensian space. I am Captain Perenfar. This is my ship.” He turned to the Thorian. “Sel, you may leave orbit now. We have some time to make up.”

The pilot nodded
in acknowledgment.

Hal frowned. “Okay, fine. So you’re a freighter
Captain. What does any of this have to do with me?”

“Did not
Captain Tro tell you? You are my slave. I own you until such time as you pay off your purchase price to me, with interest.”

Slave? So Tro sold me instead of killing me? I’d thank him if I didn’t need to get back to
Smuggler’s Cove
to help Kalen.

“
I see. Uh, I’ve never been a slave before. How long will it take me to pay you back?”

Captain
Perenfar frowned in thought. “It all depends on you. If you work hard, give me no trouble, stay out of bar fights and jail, it should not take long.”

“Good, because I—”

“I would estimate no more than eight to ten years.”

“That
does
it!” Penrod thundered from his darkened office. Only a flashlight illuminated the surroundings, casting harsh shadows everywhere. “I’m sick of these damned prisoners running loose like they own the place. They’ve gone from nuisance status to a serious threat. We can’t have them disrupting operations. Post guards at every single junction closet, pump room, power substation, and any other critical juncture. Have guards at every intersection checking ID badges. Do whatever it takes to keep anything like this from happening again.
I want them found and eliminated ASAP!
Do you understand me, Jern?”

“Yes sir.”

“And that damn Chan’Yi doctor—I’ll bet he had something to do with all this. I want him locked in his cell until I have time for a little ‘chat.’ Enough of this shit.”

Penrod forced himself to calm down.
“What’s the status on the lights and other services that they’ve disrupted?”

Ishtawahl took a deep breath before answering, steeling himself for another explosion. “Power has been restored in four sectors, but it will be hours yet before the other two sectors have power. Computer operations are still down throughout most of five sectors.
The heat of the fire burned through or fused together the fiber optic bundles in one of the junction closets. It will take days to replace the damaged cables and reconnect everything. We
are
making progress on repairing the damaged pumps. However, there are still thousands of liters of water spilled that have to be reclaimed and treated.”

Penrod sighed and rubbed his temples. “Do you have
any
good news for me?”

“Yes sir.
We are almost finished upgrading all door locks to accept encrypted security codes. By tomorrow, the prisoners should no longer be able to unlock
any
doors.”

“Good.
But why didn’t we use encrypted codes from day-one?”

Ishtawahl shrugged. “They did not seem necessary at the time. The prisoners had no way to unlock the doors even before.
”

“Until they
did,
you mean.”

Ishtawahl
nodded. “Yes, but only because the doctor slipped them a calibrator. Otherwise they could never have escaped.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that.”
Penrod sighed. “Just…handle it.” He rubbed his temples again.

“We’ve hurt the pirates,” Kalen said, stating the obvious. “Not fatally, but judging from the fact that power is still out, we’ve done significant damage to this place, even if it’s only temporary. We need to strike again, and hard, before they complete repairs.”

“I am ready,” Sue replied. “I can rest later.”

Kalen shook his head. “No, you need your rest. Besides, we have to come up with a plan first.” He hefted the blaster. “This will help.”

“But what do you need
me
for?” Hal asked. “You already have a pilot.”

“Yes,”
Captain Perenfar agreed, “Sel Groshu has been with me for many years. But he is elderly now and has decided to retire to a beachfront condo on Fendewal at the end of this run. That gave me only three months in which to find a replacement. I was fortunate to have been in port when Captain Tro put out the word that he had an experienced pilot for sale. Another hour and we would have already gone. How is that for fortuitous timing? Finding you this soon gives us more than two months in which to get you trained before Sel leaves. Plenty of time, plenty of time.”

Perenfar’s voice trailed off in deep thought. “Of course, I would have preferred to
hire
someone as an employee rather than buy a slave. Employees have more incentive to work hard and get ahead. And if things do not work out you can always fire the employee. But a slave…you are stuck with him until you find a buyer, and who wants to buy a mediocre worker? Ah well, beggars cannot be choosers, can they?”

“Look,
Captain, I’m a Unity pilot, captured in a raid on the pirate fortress. If you return me to Unity headquarters, I’m sure they’ll reimburse you for my purchase price with a generous profit added in. It’s imperative that I get back with important intel. We have to stop the pirates before they use any more of their nukes!”

“Yes, well, you see
…the problem is that there is no Merchants’ Unity anymore. All gone. Bye-bye.”

“I
know they’re disbanding, but there must be
someone
left. They couldn’t have shut down completely by now, could they? It’s only been a few weeks. With what I now know about the fortress, another raid might succeed.”

“
As I understand it, there is a skeleton staff left to see to the disposition of assets, but that is all. As a functioning entity, the Unity has ceased to exist. Besides, even if it still operated, Jorseen is many light years out of our way. It would put us even more behind schedule. Too far; much too far. Anyway, what would I do without a pilot when Sel retires? No, I am afraid you must reconcile yourself to your situation. You will be with us for some time to come.”

“Nude, quick, come with—huh?”

Kalen and Sue stood just inside the door to Nude’s cell. On Nude’s
bunk, illuminated by Kalen’s flashlight, lay a shape that was too short and much too wide to be a Chan’Yi.

“Nude?”

“Here, my friend.” The voice came from the near right corner of the room, in the penumbra outside the cone of light.

“But
— Who’s that?” Kalen gestured at the body on the bunk.

“The guard who took me from the medical center and attempted to lock me in my cell.”

“But how? Didn’t he have a gun on you?”

“With this.” Nude held up the palm-sized pneumodermic. “When he was distracted opening the door. Do you think the one I gave you earlier was the only one I had available to me?”

Kalen flashed a wry smile. “No, I guess not. We came to get you.”

Nude nodded. “I
, too, decided that it was time to leave.”

“But what about your promise not to try to escape?”

Nude shrugged. “It occurred to me that as long as I do not try to leave the fortress, technically I have not escaped. I am still trapped inside the fortress.”

Kalen chuckled. “That was the same argument I was going to use on you. Nude my friend, if you ever get tired of medicine, I think you’ll have a bright career ahead of you in politics.”

“Please, no insults.”

Kalen laughed and then remembered the reason they came for Nude. “We have to go.
It’s time we start creating real havoc around here, and it’ll take more than the three of us to do it.” He nodded toward Sue. “We need an army.”

“Well then,” Nude concluded, “I
expect we will need this.” He pulled the guard’s blaster from a pocket in his gown and handed it to Hal.

“I
expect we will,” Kalen agreed.

“Then
, let us go. We have an army to conjure up.”

“Yes, but first we
’ll need more weapons—a lot more.”

“I am about to entrust you with control of my ship, Hal.” Captain Perenfar looked up at the taller human. “That gives you much power—more than a slave probably should be given. But to perform the duties for which I bought you, it is unavoidable. Before I turn over my ship to you, I must have your solemn word as a Unity officer that you will never act against the best interests of this ship or this crew.”

Hal thought for a moment. “I so swear. You have my word.”

“Excuse me. I’m lost. Can you tell me—?”

Sue stopped talking when the guard outside the pump room hit the ground. Kalen, standing behind him, slipped the pneumodermic back into his pocket.

S
ue pocketed the guard’s blaster and ID badge and the two moved on, looking for their next target.

Before the pirates had any inkling of what was going on, the duo had collected a dozen blasters and badges.

Hal lay on the couch in his quarters.
As promised, Captain Perenfar had authorized Hal’s implant for
Far Traveler’s
systems, giving him access to all her sensors, life support, engines, and everything else required to operate a hyperflight-capable ship.

Hal opened his mind to the ship and gasped in response.

It’s been too long.

At once his mind expanded outward to absorb the input from external sensors, seeing stars and planets at telescopic resolution
and deep into the x-ray and infrared spectra, then inward to feel the input from internal sensors, avionics, and other equipment.

He marveled at how different the “flavor” of this ship was from what he was used to on
Adventurer.
The gear was older, and of a different design, plus the ship lacked weapon systems and had many more cargo holds, each with its own set of sensors.